For the first week of November, the International Music Festival Jazz Fest Sarajevo, taking place from November 5 to 8, has prepared a diverse and exciting program featuring musicians from the United States, France, Canada, Cuba, Spain, Greece, Switzerland, Belgium, Turkey, Germany, the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The festival will open Montreal-based quartet of Malika Tirolien, a two-time Grammy-nominated singer. She also took part in the Grammy-winning album by Snarky Puppy, alongside Lalah Hathaway and other vocalists. In addition, Tirolien leads the band Bokanté together with Michael League, leader of Snarky Puppy—their joint world music project has been nominated twice for a Grammy for best album. In Sarajevo, Malika Tirolien will perform with her band GeminiCrab, co-led with producer and keyboardist Caulder Nash.

On November 6, another Grammy-nominated artist will take the stage—Alfredo Rodríguez, the virtuosic Cuban pianist and sensation, who will make his Sarajevo debut at Jazz Fest in the classic piano trio formation. On November 7, legendary drummer Jojo Mayer will present Me_Machine for the first time—an improvised interaction of masterful musicianship and cutting-edge technology in a duet with artificial intelligence.

This year’s Jazz Fest Sarajevo will also feature the ensemble Poravna, presenting the traditional music of Bosnia and Herzegovina with vocalist Vesna Pisarović in an international quintet that includes renowned musicians Greg Cohen, Axel Dörner, Noël Akchoté, and Mark Sanders. Traditional music from Eastern Anatolia, sung in Kurdish and Alevi languages, will be performed by the trio of Ali Doğan Gönültaş, while the festival will close at the National Theatre with German drumming superstar Benny Greb and his Brass Band.

On the stage of the Youth Theatre, Jazz Fest Sarajevo 2025 will present American guitarist Ava Mendoza, the six-member ensemble Pocket.Star led by Slovenian trumpeter Igor Matković, and the European premiere of the American supergroup Trickster, led by Miles Okazaki with pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist Anthony Tidd, and drummer Sean Rickman.

This year, Music Meeting, Jazz Fest Sarajevo’s educational program, is transforming from a regional to a European platform for informal education of young musicians. Lecturers and artists from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Croatia, the United States, and Serbia will hold a series of lectures, discussions, masterclasses, and workshops for 30 participants from Bosnia and Herzegovina and other European countries. The program is led by Damir Imamović, and applications are open until October 6.

Tickets for all festival concerts are available online now via the ticket link, and from the end of October at the festival’s Box Office.